NWR is keenly aware of its responsibility for changes to the landscape that have occurred as a result of underground coal extraction.
That is why the company has implemented a number of projects aimed at mitigating the consequences of mining activities, with the most significant being land reclamation. NWR pays great attention to the regeneration of individual areas affected by coal mining.
Owing to land reclamation projects, the landscape in the Karviná and Ostrava regions has changed considerably over the past few years. The improved situation is documented in a new publication, “We’re Returning Life to the Landscape”, published by the Company. “In 2010 alone, 55 large land reclamation projects took place in the area of 860 hectares. The total costs amounted to almost CZK 265 million. The Darkov Sea area near Karviná, for example, is the result of the biggest reclamation project in Moravia and Silesia and possesses the potential to become an attractive leisure and recreational destination for the people living in the region,” said Radim Tabášek, staff manager responsible for land reclamation projects implemented by OKD, a subsidiary of NWR.
The objective of land reclamation projects is to return the landscape to its natural condition, whereby the area is a functioning self-sufficient ecosystem with naturally indigenous animal and plant life. These have been gradually returning to these areas, giving rise to a new ecosystem in which precious fauna and flora occur. In comparison with the alternative opinion of some environmentalists, who claim that the ideal solution is to let nature cope with the
consequences on its own, despite its costliness, NWR’s approach is the fastest way of returning nature to landscapes affected by mining activities.
“The decision about how the areas would look after reclamation and what their further use would be is always taken by the councils of individual municipalities. All the works are overseen by the environmental protection authorities and we place great emphasis on the projects’ environmental dimension,” Tabášek explained.
Since 1989 the total costs for reclamation in the OKD mining district have amounted to CZK 4.25 billion. Almost CZK 3 billion was laid out by OKD itself, while CZK 1.26 billion was financed by the state within the Reclamation of the Moravia-Silesia Region programme, launched in 2003 and aimed at eliminating the damage caused by mining before 1992, i.e. prior to OKD’s privatisation.